This invention relates to promotional items and in particular to retail point of purchase displays.
Various marketing and advertising schemes are used to promote and sell consumer products. One very common technique is to place advertisements in retail outlets near the checkouts or locations where the associated product is displayed for sale. Such point of purchase promotional devices can include signs, samples, product brochures and coupons, all of which are well established as effective such that their use is a matter of routine, at least for certain products and channels of commerce, for example the retail sale of foodstuffs. These devices can be large or small, floor standing, suspended, shelf-mounted or table top items.
Suppliers of food products commonly provide consumers with discounts on certain products, such as newly offered items, in the form of coupons that can be redeemed at the retail outlets for a reduction in the cost of the product. As mentioned, the coupons can be provided to the consumers at the point of purchase as a way of enticing consumers to purchase their products rather than their competitors'.
Manual and automated coupon dispensers have been developed and utilized for dispensing one coupon at a time to the consumer. For example, manual dispenser boxes of the type for dispensing one coupon from a stack of coupons are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,979,699 and 6,367,654 assigned to the assignee of the present invention, which are hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein. These dispensers include a container holding a stack of the individual coupons, which may be folded and interleaved or not. Some technique for issuing a single coupon at a time may also be incorporated into the dispenser. For example, the containers may also house a spring element to push the coupons toward an access opening so that only the upper or outermost sheet sticks out of the access opening so only it can be easily grasped.
Some of these coupon dispensers, such at that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,654 mentioned above, can have small display panels termed “shouters” on which advertisements and other promotional graphics and text can be printed to draw attention to the associated product and/or the presence of a coupon for the item. However, one problem with such devices is that the display panels may be too small to be significantly eye-catching in certain locations, crowded shelves for example. Another problem is that generally they are not self-supporting and must be mounted to a horizontal support, such as a display shelf.
Thus, an improved promotional item is desired.